Urartu Stadium
2025
“STONE AND VOID: THE MANIFESTATION OF MEMORY IN THE URARTU STADIUM PROJECT”
At the bureau, we believe that true architecture emerges from a dialogue with place. The Urartu Stadium project in Yerevan became an exploration of how a contemporary sports facility can extend the centuries-old conversation between architecture and landscape.
In the shadow of the Shengavit hills, where the Razdan River has carved its canyon, an architectural gesture emerges — both radical and delicate.
The new Urartu Stadium is not merely constructed; it is precipitated, like a geological formation, obeying the logic of the site rather than overcoming it. Its architecture probes the boundaries between the natural and the man-made, between memory and immediacy.
The composition’s three elements — the amphitheater, the covered stand, and the “vanishing” ruin — form not a unified whole but rather a family of forms linked by rhythmic pauses. These gaps are not merely functional passages but breathing intervals, lending mass a sense of lightness and rendering the boundary between structure and landscape permeable. The northwest orientation of the pitch, dictated by sporting regulations, unexpectedly aligns with Yerevan’s deep topographical axis — as if affirming the inevitability of this positioning.
The historical precedent of Panathenaic Stadium in Athens demonstrates how a sports venue can transcend mere functionality to become a tectonic expression of culture. Its marble terraces, surviving millennia, prove that true stadium architecture is not a matter of capacity or comfort but a way of organizing collective memory. In Yerevan, this principle finds new expression — not through monumentality, but through fragmentation; not through completion, but through processuality.
The stadium’s terraced volumes, descending toward the water, continue the tradition of Armenian landscape architecture, where buildings have always been extensions of geology. The tiered stands, open plazas, and cascading greenery create not just a sports complex but a new kind of public space — a 21st-century agora, where sport becomes an occasion for weaving together the urban fabric.
A distinctive layer of expression comes from the dialogue with the ruins of the old Nairi Stadium. Here, architecture rejects total replacement in favor of strategic augmentation and reinterpretation. Fragments of historic structures are integrated as conceptual anchors — reminders of temporal continuity. This is not nostalgia but rather an archaeology of the future, a construction method that acknowledges the value of every layer of a place.
The reservoir and canyon become active participants in the architectural ensemble. Their presence is felt through carefully framed vistas, water reflections, and the unique acoustics of the space. The stadium does not enclose itself but instead opens toward the landscape, inviting viewers to constantly shift their perspective.
The project’s social agenda is realized not through declarations but through spatial organization itself. Public platforms, accessible pathways, and multipurpose zones create an environment where professional sport naturally coexists with the daily life of the city.
Here, architecture is not merely a backdrop but a tool for forging new social connections.
Urartu is not an answer to the question “What should a modern stadium be?” but rather an investigation into how a sports facility can engage with the complex ecology of a city. Its value lies not in formal solutions but in how it redefines the very idea of public space within Yerevan’s context. This is architecture that does not assert but questions; that does not display but proposes.
Authors: Mikheil Mikadze, Sofya Balykina, Olga Talamanova, Evgenia Udalova